If anybody was hoping that after a 1-11 Football Season that there would be better results for the FAU Men’s Basketball Team, then think again. Going into Monday night’s road game against Arkansas State, FAU was 5-11, 1-2 in the Sun Belt Conference.

FAU’s latest loss, the Owls offense failed to show-up in Little Rock, as Arkansas Little Rock won a 40-38 contest Saturday night. That’s correct, 40-38, as both teams combined to score a mere 78 points. FAU scored 20 points trailing 22-20 at half-time.

Thus far, the highlight of the 2011-2012 FAU Season occurred at the Orange Bowl Classic, as the Owls lost a 93-90 double overtime contest to the Miami Hurricanes. Omari Grier led FAU with 27 points.

Miami leads the all-time series against FAU 21-1 as FAU’s last win against the Hurricanes occurred on Dec. 3, 2002, 74-73 in Boca Raton. This game set Orange Bowl Basketball Classic records for most assists (41) and 3-pointers made (29) and tied for most field goals made (63) and 3-pointers attempted (49). This was only the second game in Orange Bowl Classic history where both teams eclipsed the 80-point plateau, joining Florida’s 94-93 double-overtime win over Miami in 2002.

FAU now stands 0-2 all-time in Orange Bowl Classic play.

When the game was over, Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga had nothing but positive things to say about the Owls.

“My hats off to Florida Atlantic, their coaches and their team for the outstanding job they did,” Larranaga said. “Their 3-point shooting was incredible, the way they got those threes with tremendous dribble penetration and kicking it out. We were very concerned about that going into the game and it proved to be very true.”

Will there be any more Miami vs. FAU Men’s Basketball games in the future?

“Yeah, if they came to our place every other year,” FAU Coach Mike Jarvis said. “We would love to continue to play them, but they don’t want to play in Boca. So, we’ll ask them again if they’ll play home and home, and if they don’t want to play a home and home, then we probably won’t play them again.”

Since the Miami loss, FAU has lost four of the last five games. Those losses have come against Harvard, Siena, Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas Little Rock.

The Owls next home game is Saturday, Jan. 14 against Middle Tennessee State at 7 p.m. During the next month, FAU travels to Miami to face Isiah Thomas’ FIU Golden Panthers on Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. The two teams meet again on Feb. 4 in Boca Raton at 7 p.m.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at www.scottsports33.com.